This was such a weird year of running. On paper, it looks awesome. I PRed in the marathon by 55 minutes and qualified for Boston by 20 minutes, and basically every single race I did at the beginning of the year was a PR, and I cross country PRed in the 5k towards the end of the year, but there were two long stretches where there was a lack of running, and man those stretches just felt like they lasted forever, and it brought the year down. I ran 3,047 miles this year, which is about 400 miles less than last year, but it started to come into question whether or not I was going to make it to 3,000 or not towards the end, and judging from how I started the year, I did not see that twist coming. So I guess let’s start from the beginning and work through the good and the bad.
The year opened with a 5k the day of the Super Bowl. I ran a 16:08, which in my wildest dreams I never would have predicted, and I got third, which was an incredible start to the year. That was a 49 second PR, and during the race I ran one of my top three fastest miles ever. Next was the Shamrock Run, and on that one I actually ran my fastest mile ever on the first mile, which has a big chunk of downhill running. I think it was a 4:53? I ended up finishing 8th. There was another five-mile St. Patrick’s race in Rochester that I got 12th at and ran an 8k PR, and I was having a great time gearing up for my Marathon, including a 10th place finish at the Syracuse half where I ran a 72:18. I wrote a whole paper about my marathon, and it was one of, if not the most, incredible running experience I have ever had. I finished third and won a weird vase/giant glass, and they accidently gave me a half marathon cutting board trophy.
Then came the Mountain Goat, it was just two short weeks after my Marathon, but given the competition that signed up, I felt like I had a good chance of winning, and others told me that too, but it did not end up that way. I ran the first couple miles with Sean, but when we got to the first big hill, and I went conservative, and he did not, I never caught up to him again. I did come close to being back next to him about halfway through, but then the Colvin climb came, and I was dead in the water. No matter how hard I pushed, I could not make up any ground, and my legs were completely smoked. It was very depressing. I wanted to win this race over any of the others, and I ended up getting a distant second, and running a poor positive split-second half, but still a sizable PR from last year, where I was 15th. Then I finally got my first ever win a few weeks later at a small 5k at Beak & Skiff, and it came with some good prizes, but it was not the Mountain Goat.
Then when the year was about halfway through, it started to go downhill. There was a three-week split as June shifted to July where I basically was unable to run any miles, due to an injury where I took a wrong step in my classroom and banged my knee into the metal handle of a cabinet. It is so wild, that something mundane can cause such distress. Still to this day, when I am in my classroom, I make sure to walk very carefully around the cabinets, and I am in fear of them. Somehow, I ran the Boilermaker, after not being able to run more than three pain free miles. I started out conservative, and then a little before halfway I started to push it, and I felt surprisingly good. I ended up just under 200th, but without the injury, I was in shape to be close to the top 50 probably, so that was a letdown, but the party after was not…
Then I started to feel alright again, and I got to do my first ever Mountain Race, which took place on some ski slopes going up and down for 6.7 miles. It was a lot of fun, and there was even walking in the race, which was weird, but it was so much fun. It also hurt a ton the next few days, but I fell in love. Then the next week I got to run 30 miles for Kate’s 30th birthday with a big crew, which was also an incredible achievement, and the most I had ever run in one day. So putting these two things together gave me the itch to do an ultramarathon, but that has not come to fruition yet. Then it was time for vacation, and I got to run up and down some mountains in Virginia and North Carolina, which was tough, but so much fun, so I am thinking there will probably be more mountain races to come in 2023.
Also on that vacation, I went to Ocean City, and on my last run of the trip, it felt like my shin exploded, and it became super inflamed. I am assuming shin splints. It felt like I was finally starting to feel good again, but then I got taken back down a notch. So I had to run on a grass field for over a week to start to feel comfortable with the pounding of the road again, and I kept my compression sleeve on my shin for weeks, usually doubling them for extra compression.
Then it was time for cross country, and it started off well, the three races I did I finished in the top 20 and much better than I did last year, but it just did not feel like I was reaching my potential. I kept getting close to breaking 17, but I just could not do it, which I blame on my lack luster inconsistent Summer of training, but I was still committed, and I got the marathon bug again, so six weeks out, I signed up for another marathon, and I got through four and a half of the weeks until my hip and back got so tight that I could barely walk without pain, but I put in some serious miles, and I did a lot of hill training up and down, plus a ten by mile workout where all the miles were sub six, and all of it just turned out to be too much. I missed the rest of cross country and the marathon and have not been looking forward to any racing since. All of November was basically a wash, and I just did weights. After about a month of no running, I started back from zero, and just started to do workouts again recently and long runs.
So a promising year took a dark turn. It was hard not being able to run at all for like a month, and not being able to contribute to the cross-country team in the last two races, not that I was a big help, but it still feels like a letdown. There were a lot of races this year, and they were tiring and come with pressure. So I am looking for less races this year and more miles. It is easy to say that now, so we will see how it goes. The only race I am currently signed up for is Boston, but I am hoping to sign up for some mountain races and one ultra. I am looking forward to a year of smarter running and healthier running. I did end up getting to 15,000 miles logged on Running2Win, and I started logging on there in 2017, I think, which is a pretty cool milestone. So here’s to another year, and hopefully 3,000 more miles!
Thank you to all my friends who ran miles with me along the way and to my family for always supporting me, and sometimes rearranging the schedule, because I have a race or need to run 20 miles for a long run. I appreciate you all!
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